Version Differences

This is a sub-page of Super Mario Bros. 3.

To do: Document any differences between the two Japanese PRG revisions. Also, document the dead gray Mario bug that is unique to Japan.

Note: The PlayChoice-10 version is exactly same as the US PRG0 version.

Changes from Japan to US PRG0#

Quite a bit was changed in the 2 years between the Japanese and International versions of the game. Interestingly, the version of the game included in Super Mario All-Stars (And, by extension, Super Mario Advance 4) ended up mixing and matching a variety of these changes.

Title Screen#

Japan	International

The trademark symbol was repositioned in the international versions, though this was reverted in All-Stars. The floor also appears one line lower due to some timing changes in the MMC3 IRQ code, making the top row of white pixels appear correctly.

Gameplay and Visual Changes#

Japan	International

An extremely minor change, but the "WORLD" text in the hud during gameplay had an erroneous missing pixel in the Japanese version (although the version of it used on the world map hud is completely fine), which was fixed in the US version.

Level Intro#

In the Japanese version, an iris-in effect plays when the level appears, similar to the iris-out that normally occurs on the map screen when you enter a level. This was cut out for the international versions, which reduces the wait time by around one second per level. All-Stars uses a similar iris-in, though much smoother thanks to the SNES' windowing capabilities.

Damage System#

By far the biggest change between versions. In the Japanese version, getting hit while powered-up causes the player to shrink to Small Mario just like in the first two Super Mario Bros. games. Apparently this was deemed too hard for overseas players, so it was changed: Anything above Super Mario reverts only to Super Mario when hit, then to Small Mario. While Super Mario World went back to the Japanese system, this revised system became a series standard following New Super Mario Bros., and it was also retained in All-Stars. This change makes the short demo that plays on the title screen that explains the general physics of the game "incorrect" in the international versions as Mario is clearly shown being reduced to Small Mario when being hit by a shell when he is Raccoon Mario, something that, bizarrely enough, was not fixed for either All-Stars or Advance 4.

Losing Powerups#

In the Japanese version, getting hit as Fire or Raccoon Mario will play the same animation as getting hit as Super Mario. With the new damage system, the International version now has the powerup disappear in a puff of smoke when getting hit while powered-up above Super Mario, using the same animation as getting a Super Leaf or a Frog, Tanooki, or Hammer suit in all versions of the game.

If you get hit while wearing any of the 3 suits in the Japanese version, the suit flies off in a similar fashion to how the Goomba's Shoe does after getting hit while wearing it in all versions, even playing the same sound effect:

This was removed in the International version, with the animation now being the same as getting hit while Fire or Raccoon Mario, as mentioned above. All-Stars changed these animations, now having the player flash if they get hit as Fire or Raccoon Mario, using the same sound effect as getting hit as Super Mario, while reinstating the suit damage effect from the Japanese version.

The Japanese version treats Goomba's Shoe the same way as any other suit, in that getting hit sends the shoe flying off and reverts you to small Mario. The international versions retain the visual effect (and correct the shoe color from red to green), but let you keep your current powerup. This change was retained in All-Stars.

Mushroom House Waiting#

In the Japanese version, the player can move before Toad is done talking. In the international versions, the player must wait until the message is completely displayed. Another change reverted for All-Stars (With Advance 4 further tweaking it by completely removing the waiting time).

Ending Curtain Speed#

After the curtains close, it takes a moment longer for them to rise again during the Japanese ending.

28 P-Wings#

In the international versions of the game, pressing Start after the ending sequence will return you to the title screen, whereupon starting a new game will give you a full inventory of P-Wings. In the original Japanese release, this feature is not included, and the game will remain on the final screen until the Famicom is turned off.

Level Design Changes#

World 1 Fortress#

Japan	International

The spike room of the World 1 Fortress was changed. The spikes no longer continue past the door, and the gap is now right where the door is. This made the part slightly easier. This change was retained in All-Stars.

King's Chamber#

Japan	International

The king's chamber underwent a remake in the international versions. The background was brightened, the cyan stairs and throne were changed to a more royal-looking gold, and the stairs were lengthened slightly. The pillar's shadows were mirrored (which caused them to be inconsistent with the background triangles' shadows), the triangles in the background were changed, and the rightmost pillar was moved in front of the stairs. Finally, Mario stands in front of the stairs, instead of on the left side of the screen. You might've also noticed that the middle pillar was removed, and that's because...

Japan	International

The text box was expanded to fit the translated text, which meant it would've overlapped with the pillar. It also became brighter like the background.

All-Stars uses the Japanese version's layout, though the throne is gold like in the international version.

Minigame Cutscenes#

Japan	International

On that note, just like the text box in the king's chamber, the text box seen during the minigame cutscenes was widened to accommodate for the English text.

World 5-1#

Japan	International

In the Japanese version, 5-1 ends in a pipe which you have to enter to get to the final area. In the international versions, the pipe and a Buster Beetle were removed and the level leads seamlessly into the black area. This was done to fix a weird bug that happened if you used a P-Wing to fly over the blue structure at the final area (see Bugfixes). All-Stars retained this change.

World 6 Mushroom House#

The first Mushroom House in World 6 contains a Hammer Suit in all 3 chests in the Japanese version. In the international versions, it was changed to randomly give you a Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, or Super Leaf. All-Stars reverted this change.

World 8 Battleship Level#

Japan	International

In the international versions, one tile was removed off the end of the final ship, allowing players to more easily jump onto the ship should they swim under the fleet. In the Japanese version, the jump must be timed with the ship's wavy motion. All-Stars, oddly enough, reverted this change.

Text Changes#

Aside from Princess Peach being renamed Princess Toadstool, a few other changes were made in the localization.

World 3 and 5 Hints#

In the international versions, the hints the Princess gives you in her letters received at the end of Worlds 2 and 3 switched places with each other in the localization process. This would later be corrected in Advance 4.

しろいぶろっくは　てきを　けちらす
まほうの　ちからがあるそうよ.

You can stomp on 
your enemies using
Kuribo's shoe.

At the end of World 2 in the Japanese version, the Princess gives you a hint about the white blocks that are first encountered in World 3.

くりぼうのくつをつかうと
いろんなてきを　ふみつけられるのよ.

The White Block
contains magic
powers that will
enable you to defeat
your enemies.

At the end of World 3 in the Japanese version, the Princess gives you a hint about Kuribo/Goomba's Shoe encountered in World 5.

Ending#

ありがとう！　やっと
きのこのせかいに　へい
わがもどりました.　
----
 おしまいっ！

Thank you! At last,
peace has returned to 
the Mushroom World.
----
The End!

Thank you. But
our Princess is
in another 
Castle!...Just
kidding! Ha ha
ha! Bye bye.

Thank you!


Peace has at last
returned to our
fair Mushroom
Kingdom!

THE END!

In the original Japanese version, Peach delivered a more generic "Peace has returned to the world" line, while in the international version, her line was changed to a jokier "Your Princess is in another castle" gag. The International versions of All-Stars retain this edit, while the International versions of Advance 4 use a line that's more accurate to the Japanese one, but refers to the Mushroom Kingdom instead of the Mushroom World.

World 8 Name#

Japan	International

The name of World 8 is "Castle of Kuppa" in the Japanese and "Castle of Koopa" in the international releases. This is the first time the "Koopa" spelling for Bowser's name appears in a game (before that, the Western box art and manual for Super Mario Bros. already used it, though). The Japanese versions would adopt the international spelling "Koopa" only later with Super Mario World. All-Stars uses "Koopa" in all regional versions.

Bugfixes#

Some bugs were fixed in the international versions:

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: A lot of sources claim this bug can be used to obtain a 4th warp whistle, but I've only been able to obtain a glitched chest item from it. Figure out if there are additional circumstances or if the item becoming a whistle is due to emulation bugs.

• In the Japanese version, World 5-1 has a different layout. If you use a P-Wing and then, in the final area, fly over the blue structure to your left, you'll actually trigger the treasure chest of the World 5-1 bonus room. Then, if you touch the Roulette Block, the treasure chest from the aforementioned bonus room will appear. If the Nipper is both dead and off-screen when you touch the Roulette Block from the left, the chest will appear on the right side so Mario collects it while he walks off the screen. This will cause the graphics of the Course Clear message to be all glitched up. This bug was fixed in the international versions by rearranging the level so the blue structure is no longer there.
• • If you move slowly to the left when on top of the blue structure and then return to the goal when you first hear the chest spawn SFX, the chest will contain a glitched black and white chest item that adds nothing to your inventory instead of the music box.
• In World 3, if you used a Warp Whistle while on the canoe, you could go off to the left and leave the Warp Zone map. However, you cannot get back and are stuck there unless you have another Warp Whistle or continue right until you get to a screen filled with graphics, which then leads to the Warp Zone map. This was fixed in the international versions. All-Stars fixed it in a different manner by simply not allowing you to use a Warp Whistle while on a canoe.
• The MMC3 IRQ code was altered to fix some minor visual issues in areas with screen splits.

Changes from US PRG0 and US PRG1/EU#

A second revision of the US version was released, which is the version the European release is based on. Strangely enough, none of its text changes ended up being carried over to All-Stars.

Status Bar Card Bug#

In revision 0, the code responsible for drawing the status bar doesn't take into account the vertical mirroring used in sections of World 4 Fortress, World 5-2, World 7-1, and World 7-6. It ends up writing the cards to the nametable address that stores the level's tile data instead of the one that stores the status bar tile data, resulting in the cards seeming to have disappeared until moving to a room without vertical mirroring.

Card Game#

US (Revision 0)	US (Revision 1)/Europe

One of the most famous differences between the two US versions. Revision 0's "Miss twice and your out!" is obviously grammatically wrong, as it should say "Miss twice and you're out!" As there is no more space in the text box to do that, the Revision 1 version simply reworded the sentence to fit it in. This change was carried to the European version. While All-Stars still used the incorrect PRG0 text, Advance 4's minigame cutscenes were completely redone, including a reformatted textbox, allowing it to use a grammatically correct version of the PRG0 text.

Princess's Letter#

US (Revision 0)	US (Revision 1)/Europe

In Revision 0, the Princess talks about "Kuribo's Shoe". "Kuribo" is the Japanese name for Goomba, so whoever was translating the name didn't know that the enemy in question had its name changed for localization. In the Revision 1 version, it was renamed to Goomba's Shoe. This change was not carried over to Super Mario All-Stars, which retains the "Kuribo" name. Nintendo has had an unfortunate tendency to flip-flop between the two names in later games and publications (which later led to an originally unnamed Sockop (which resemble Goomba's Shoes) in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story being given the name Kuribo in its Western localization).

World names#

All of the world names (except for World 1, which remains "Grass Land") during the ending were changed. In the Japanese version and the original US release, the worlds have more distinct names which were later changed to "____ Land".

These new names were not carried over for All-Stars and Advance 4, which use the original names (though "Ocean Side" was renamed "Sea Side", and Advance 4 renames "Castle of Koopa" to "Bowser's Castle").

Changes from US to EU#

Airship Theme#

In the Japanese and American versions, the timpani beat in the airship theme is noticeably off-sync. This was corrected for the European version, though this fix was not carried over to the song's appearance in either Super Mario Maker game, or in the Airship BGM music in the Nintendo Music app.

Bowser's Letter#

US	Europe

In the European version, the author of the letter has been altered from "King of the Koopa" to "Koopa Troopa". The Japanese version is signed only with Bowser's Japanese name, クッパ (then "Kuppa", now "Koopa"). Whoever tried to improve the translation seems to have consulted the original Super Mario Bros. manual, where Koopa is not only an alternate name for Bowser but also the name of his tribe of turtles. It seems the translator re-interpreted the letter to be written by the tribe rather than Bowser only, and incorrectly assumed "Koopa Troopa" to be an alternate name for the tribe (when it's actually just the name for the common turtle enemy known as ノコノコ Nokonoko in Japan). Needless to say, this change was not carried over to All-Stars.

Virtual Console Changes#

In the original game, the explosion of a Bob-omb, collecting the "?" Orb dropped by Boom-Boom, or the wand dropped by a Koopaling will cause the screen to flash a rainbow of colors. In the Virtual Console release, this was changed so that the screen merely turns bright yellow for a few seconds to reduce the risk of causing epileptic seizures. This mirrors changes made in Advance 4 and Super Mario World for similar reasons.